Why you shouldn’t compromise data security – by emailing payslips to employees – during a crisis.
We get it. The impact of Coronavirus has fallen in the busiest month of the year for payroll. You’re working all the hours under the sun to stay afloat. Daily COVID-19 updates, SSP, the furlough scheme, year-end. The list goes on. And then there’s payslip delivery. Trying to reach employees – now in many locations – to meet legislation to provide a payslip on or before payday.
Maybe you’re working from home and trying to figure out how you will print and distribute paper payslips to employees? Or you’re concerned about the extra cost of posting to home addresses? Perhaps you have an epayslip solution but employees can’t view it outside the company network?
You need a quick fix.
You need a way of delivering payslips, furlough letters and other payroll/HR documents that will reach employees wherever they are.
We understand the pressures of the current situation has meant some payroll teams have had to push forward plans to switch to a digital solution. Which means less time to review options and the need for a quick fix until there’s time to look at a more permanent solution.
But, it’s so important to keep data protection at the forefront of your mind. The quick fix undo all the hard work you did for the GDPR. And despite working through a pandemic, there’s still an expectation that you’ll protect employee data and follow data protection policies.
In these circumstances, we’re finding some payroll teams are falling back on email as a quick, low-cost way of delivering payslips and other pay documents to employees.
Emailing payslips is not secure.
At Datagraphic, we’ve always been advocates for data security and have the strong opinion that email (even password-protected) is not a secure way of sending employee communications that contain personal and financial information.
There are many reasons why email is not considered secure (you can read the six things we think you should know before emailing employee documents here), but one of the most fundamental reasons why you should question emailing payslips is because email lacks protection when it is being sent from one inbox to another and when it is sat in an inbox.
Payslips contain financial and sensitive information, which if exposed to the wrong person, could have a detrimental effect on you and the employee. Even if an employee has agreed to receive documents by email it is still your responsibility to make sure they are delivered in the most secure way.
If emailing payslips is your only option for delivering them digitally, then we would recommend you print and post payslips instead. There are trusted suppliers who can print and distribute documents securely during this time. Our Group Managing Director, Glyn King, recently recorded a short video explaining more on this.
Please be vigilant. Unfortunately the world is seeing a rise in cyber-crime, as hackers take advantage of people and businesses in vulnerable situations. And we don’t want that to happen to you.
If you’d like advice on more secure ways to send employees documents digitally, please get in touch and one of our experts will be happy to help.
